Hostage at Midday
by ShunKickShunKers
Summary: When Prentiss and Hill find themselves in a hostage situation, the BAU and SHIELD have to work together to get them out. Sequel to When in Custody. past Hotly, past Prentiss/Coulson, Clintasha
1. Chapter 1

**Well, well, so this is the sequel to When in Custody. It starts right after the last chapter, so for those who hadn't read it, the first part of the chapter might be a bit confusing. Anyway, hope you enjoy :)**

* * *

**Prologue:**

The lights of the hotel room were turned off, but Prentiss didn't need them to know someone was waiting for her.

"Took you long enough. I was starting to think you were going to stay out all night."

Prentiss smirked and switched the light on. As she expected, Maria Hill was sitting on a chair, legs crossed and one elbow resting on the small desk.

"Blame Phil" she replied lightly. "He took forever to talk to me on the way back."

Hill raised an interested eyebrow.

"I take it you two will stand in the same room again without glaring?"

"Shut up." Prentiss said, but the smile didn't leave her face. "It's good to see you." She stepped closer and Hill stood up to pull her into a tight hug. It _was_ good to see Maria again, the brunette thought. Nine years might have gone in a flash but it still felt like yesterday that she had seen the cadet step in SHIELD's facilities, perfectly managing to hide her amazement. After a couple of late night shifts and rope-showing along with a few life endangering situations, both women had bounded fast.

"I found crappy whiskey in your fridge." Hill said when she pulled back. Prentiss smirked.

"Please tell me you left some for me."

An hour later, Hill was on the chair and Prentiss had claimed the bed. Both had been exchanged news of their lives, chatted, gossiped, and laughed hard until a neighbor knocked on the door to claim silence. They had been having a great moment and yet Prentiss knew SHIELD and knew Maria Hill. That organization and this woman never did anything without purpose behind. Phil had said she wanted to thank her and catch up, but something in the way he had said it understated there was more to it. Her friend had come to talk about something.

"All right" she suddenly said, elbows resting over her knees. "Let's cut the chase now Mari. Why are you here?"

The woman frowned and tilted her head slightly.

"What, am I not allowed to visit an old friend? I mean, after what you did for us today…" Prentiss chuckled.

"That might have been part of your plan, but I'm not dumb, I know there's more. C'mon Mari, I've worked with SHIELD too. If you keep up this act you'll be insulting both of us."

"That hurts you know" Hill replied, faking a disappointed pout. The FBI Agent laughed this time and set herself straight, knowing the serious stuff was coming. "Fine. I came to ask you another favor." The brunette nodded and waited. Hill picked up a bag from under the desk and pulled out three files entitled '_Report New Mexico', 'Report B. Banner', _and the last one _'Report T. Stark'._

"What is this?" Prentiss asked slowly, taking them with precaution and eyeing it warily. She assumed "T. Stark" was Tony Stark –who hadn't heard of him anyway with the late Iron Man fiasco?-, but Banner wasn't a familiar name. And what the heck had happened in New Mexico lately?

"Read it through." Hill ordered. The FBI agent didn't move and kept a steady eye on her as she executed a quick cold reading on her.

"I have a feeling these are very confidential files, am I wrong?"

"Not above your SHIELD security clearance." Prentiss frowned; this wasn't in SHIELD's usual moves. This sounded more like an under-the-cover operation.

"You are taking risks to bring _me_ of all people confidential files. Fury doesn't know about this, does he?" Hill stared at her straight in the eye and spoke slowly:

"The world is getting stranger by the minute, Emily. SHIELD had a hard time covering some of the latest events, and the rest you will eventually hear about. But when the time comes I need to know where I can find reliable allies." Prentiss shifted uncomfortably on the bed; she didn't like the expression on her friend's face.

"You're starting to scare me. What's going on Maria?"

"Read this. And when you're done, we're going to have a conversation about how the world is changing and how you can help us keep it safe."

_Two months later, Portland_

"Baby girl, remind me what are we doing here?"

"Hush Derek I'm working."

"Hacking into a restaurant's camera system is not exactly working. What are you trying to do anyway? Why do you want to spy on Emily so badly?"

Penelope Garcia ignored him as she kept on taping on her keyboard. Two days ago, a woman named Maria Coleen had called and left a message for Prentiss. When she had relayed the information, her favorite gumdrop had had that odd look in her eyes, which had vaguely reminded her that time with a certain Doyle…and call her paranoid, but if her team was in danger again, she wanted to be informed. Hence why she ran a background check on 'Maria Coleen' –apparently a current CIA agent- and had hacked into Prentiss' bank account and found out she had booked a plane to fly to Portland. She had followed her friend there –dragging Morgan along- and was now stationed at a café nearby a five-star restaurant, infiltrating the system in attempt to catch anything of Prentiss's last minute rendez-vous.

Ok, call her paranoid.

But still, after that failed attempt of relationship between Prentiss and Hotch last month –thank God it had been one amiable ending!- and Prentiss' odd behavior lately, she had every right to worry. Her friend wasn't going out so often anymore, was more distracted hat usual –Hotch had called her on it at least three time this past week!- and Garcia did not like it one bit. Since that case in Lodi, where Emily had encountered her former partner-boyfriend-fiancé-Carter or Couser or whatever his name was, she hadn't been the same.

"I've got them!" she said, almost triumphantly. Morgan scooted his chair closer to the screen of her laptop and took a close glance: in the far end of the room, he saw Prentiss hug a brunette woman he assumed to be Maria Coleen. Both were wearing wide smiles and laughing. They sat around the table and started talking after ordering a drink.

"This is bordering on creepy Baby Girl" the man said, shaking his head. He had only followed the analyst because he knew she would have gone with or without him, and in case Prentiss busted her, make some damage control.

"Oh sue me, I'm worried." Garcia replied. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed how distant she's been lately." Morgan sighed and put a hand over her shoulder and squeezed.

"I did Penelope, believe me I did. But really, following her to Portland? Isn't that a little bit extreme?"

"She told me she was going to Atlanta. Non refundable tickets. And yet she drops everything to go to Portland after that one phone call? Sorry Derek, but I'm intrigued."

The African-American stiffened slightly; he didn't know that part. On the screen, the two women stopped chatting and turned around, something catching their attention. On the other side of the room, the camera showed five men sitting around a round table, eating. The distance didn't make their features recognizable, but for some reason, Coleen showed signs of discomfort. Prentiss's next moves looked like an attempt to soothe her, but the result was neither a failure nor a success. The woman stopped fidgeting, but the line of her shoulders was particularly tensed.

And so did Prentiss's when one of the men stood up, walked to the closest table where a couple was sharing a drink, pulled out a gun from his vest and shot the oblivious man in the back of his skull.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for the long wait…I got caught up in stuff and really distracted. Anyway here's the update. Hopefully next chapter won't take so long ^^" **

**Unbeta-ed work, so every mistake is mine. Oh, and since I picked up the title of this fic randomly, I randomly chose the name of the restaurant. **

**Read and enjoy!**

* * *

**Hostages at Midday**

**1.**

"That is not the way I wanted to spend my weekend." Prentiss hissed.

She should have seen it coming though; her whole week had been hellish between her break-up with Hotch (they had tried for a month before realizing they were much better off as friends), Hill's last minute call barely an hour after she had booked her plane to Atlanta (not that she could blame her friend, Hill's schedule was ten times tighter than hers but damn those were nonrefundable tickets for _Atlanta_ for God's sake!), then a creepy suspect hitting on her (she had never been so happy to cuff him), the chatty taxi chauffeur who had driven her to the restaurant (he was starting to get on her nerves, who cared his daughter was studying in Greece?)…

Next to her, Hill grunted in agreement.

Everything had gone fine at first. Prentiss had stepped in the restaurant, The Midday, greeted her friend with a smile, they had ordered drinks and started chatting of inconsequential things…Of course a bad guy SHIELD had been tracking for the past two months would show up in the restaurant. Of course Hill would recognize him, get slightly unnerved because she had no way to contact SHIELD without him noticing or overhearing. And of course, the bad guy would stand up, kill someone in plain sight then take the clients hostages.

The four thuds and their boss were ordering to the customers to lie down, hands over their head. Fortunately, the space between their table and the room service door was large enough to cover their tactical retreat, but their position was very temporary. It wouldn't take long for the hostage takers to go in search of any remaining person in the restaurant.

"So, who's our guy?" Prentiss whispered. Hill frowned in discontent.

"Name is Rodrigo Tanner. Drug and arms dealer. We were going to order a hit on him this week."

"Any idea who is the guy he killed?"

"I didn't get a good look on him, but I think the woman with him is Catherina Rossi, the wife of another arms dealer Marco Rossi." She shrugged nonchalantly, but Prentiss clearly saw the tension in her shoulders. "I went undercover once, Tanner knows my face. If he sees me here, he'll have questions."

Prentiss had a good idea of what Hill was suggesting.

"So you want to lay low? We're gonna be busted if we-"

"We can sneak in some room and keep track from the outside. The restaurant has cameras. If we play it right, we can do this."

"You want to leave a bunch of hostage-"

Hill's expression cut her short.

"I don't like this, but what can you do right now? Outnumbered, unarmed, hostages…in my book it never ends well and I'd rather plan their taking down without the pressure of a gun behind my skull."

Prentiss frowned:

"You really think SHIELD can get here on such short notice?"

"I might or not have invited Phil to join us." Hill replied with a shrug. "If he kept to schedule, then he should be there soon. C'mon let's go."

The hostage takers were too busy ordering the clients around, waving their weapons and firing a few shots in warning to pay attention to them. The two women slipped through the staff's door and found themselves in the deserted kitchen. They exchanged glances. The staff must have run to the far back and through the emergency exit door. Prentiss and Hill didn't waste time and picked up a couple of knives before heading forwards. They had barely closed the other exit door that they heard voices entering the kitchen. So the hijackers were in hunt for missing people now; they needed to move fast.

"Manager's office?" Prentiss offered. Camera feeds would be more likely there. Hill nodded.

"Let's go."

* * *

The police sirens blazed in the afar. Morgan checked his watch; fifteen minutes had gone by since the gunshot and he was getting nervous. Worst, Garcia was panicking over her screens after losing sight of their colleague. Barely five minutes after the kill, Prentiss and her friend had slipped away from the screen and the only cameras were showing the restaurant and the kitchen. Morgan wanted so badly to contact Prentiss, but fearing that her ringtone might attract attention, stopped himself.

It took another couple of minutes for the cops to show up and set a security perimeter. Morgan's badge had allowed him access inside but he didn't push his luck with the officers, not yet. So he stood on the side and called the rest of his team while Garcia ran a facial recognition program on the hostage-takers. She had been running the program for five minutes before she spoke up:

"Say Derek, isn't that guy Emily's ex?"

Morgan looked up and saw what had caught the woman's attention. A newcomer was discussion with an officer quite lively. At first, he didn't recognize the man. The guy wore a plain jacket over a black suit and looked completely unassuming. It hadn't been so long since he'd seen him, but he was not expecting to see Philip Coulson here. The moment the Interpol agent spotted him though, he thanked the officer and made a bee line for them. Garcia kept an irritated frown off her face; she had heard how upset Prentiss had been after their last encounter.

"How long since the hijacking?" Was Coulson's immediate question. No small talk, straight to the point and all business tone. If Morgan hadn't been a professional profiler, he would have missed the tight lines around the man's eyes and the particular tension in his hands.

"Forty minutes."

The Interpol agent didn't look pleased. A frown creased his forehead noticeably.

"I was going to meet Prentiss and a colleague of mine there." He said, as if to justify his presence. "Since you are here, I take it they are both inside?" Morgan nodded. "Officer James over there told me you had eyes in the place."

"Prentiss and her friend fled in the back of the restaurant" Morgan answered. Since Garcia didn't like the guy –not that he felt friendly with him either –he would rather limit contacts between them. But Coulson didn't take the bullshit.

"You don't like me, I get it. But we both have a person of interest stuck in there, so I suggest you put your feelings aside and work with me instead of against me. It will be more agreeable for both of us."

Morgan was about to answer when a phone rang. The Interpol agent pulled out his from his vest and stared at the number with interest.

"Well that answers it." He muttered. "Good afternoon Emily." Morgan stared at him intensely, anticipation eating him from the inside. "Ah, that guy. Fine. Tell Maria I'm calling in Delta" he turned around and handed his cell phone to the profiler. Morgan nearly snatched it from his hand.

"Emily? It's Derek; you're all right in there?"

There was a short pause on the line and for a few seconds, the man feared she had hung up.

"_I will skip the fact you are here, possibly with Garcia, now and we'll have a talk when this is over._" Prentiss was annoyed, but at least unharmed. If she would tell him off at the end of this, then he would live with it. He just hated thinking she was stuck in another hostage situation. _"Listen, our guy's name is Rodrigo Tanner. He's a trigger-happy kind of guy so we'll have to act from the inside."_

"What do you mean, 'we'? Can't you just wait for reinforcement?"

"_I need you to try to build a profile on Tanner and tell me how you think he will act later._" She went on, ignoring his question. _"And find whatever you can on Marco Rossi."_

The clipped tone surprised Morgan; she sounded pissed and worried at the same time and had never spoken to him so dryly. He let it slide, figuring now wasn't the time to be offended.

"Understood. Anything else?"

"_Put Phil back on the phone." _

The man wondered when Coulson had become 'Phil' again and handed the mobile back to its owner. The agent hummed an 'okay' and hung up.

"Emily will call you for updates." Coulson said. "I need to make a few calls. Please mention to the officer you have an inside agent." And promptly walked away, already dialing a new number.

"What a jerk" Garcia muttered, glaring at his retreating back. "Ordering us around like we worked for him!"

"He didn't have to hand me Emily." Morgan pointed out absentmindedly, remembering how quickly the man had given him the phone. Was he offering an olive branch? A mean to reassure him? Did he just not want to update himself? The man snorted and turned back to his friend. "Well baby girl, in the meantime I got some work for you."

* * *

Once Phil walked far enough, he pressed the call button. Two rings later, his intended interlocutor picked up.

"_I really hope this is urgent Phil"_ Barton's passively annoyed voice answered. "_Because Tasha is wearing that awesome purple lace…"_

"Your sex life does not interest me Barton. Take Romanoff and get both your asses down in the backstreet of the restaurant The Midday. Hill and Prentiss have a situation."

"_What happened? They broke a nail?_" the archer replied, but Coulson could hear him move through the room.

"They've been taken hostage by Tanner." A soft curse was his reply. "Oh while we're at it, don't forget the 'package'. We might need to use that thing sooner than later."


End file.
